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Chestnut, an Ancient Crop with Future 155
‘Marron glace’ being the most expensive product based on chestnut but not the most
important by quantity. Intermediate sized nuts can be transformed in natural ‘marron’
or ‘marron’ in different liqueurs.
11. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Knowledge about chestnut has increased in recent years and it will encourage
its use as an economical and social alternative in orchards and forest.
2. Complementary studies are necessary in pollination compatibility, agronomic
evaluation of the best cultivars, studies about compatibility groups in Chryphonectria
parasitica and genetic heredibility of main agronomic characters.
3. Selected material should be accessible to growers. Only in France selected
material are propagated, and Spain is trying to establish such procedure.
4. The lack of essays in different locations of the best cultivars of Europe is
limiting their recommendation in new orchards, though it improved the Origin
Denominations.
5. Most of cultivars grown in Europe and North America are based on C. sativa
and interespecific hybrids with C. crenata. Cultivars of C. mollissima are mainly
cultivated in China and less frequently in France.
6. Propagation by cuttings or in vitro micropropagation can substitute layering when
costs are reduced. Quality of the plants is better than that obtained by layering.
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